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Kamal Nath asks Cong candidates to keep tabs on polls officials, BJP fumes
The BJP is preparing to lodge a complaint against Kamal Nath and demand action.
Madhya Pradesh chief Minister Kamal Nath raised the hackles of the BJP on Wednesday after he asked Congress candidates in Lok Sabha elections and the party’s district presidents to report the names of such officers and employees who don’t maintain impartiality during poll duty.
Nath wrote the letter in his capacity as state Congress president. The BJP has said that it was an attempt on the part of the CM to “browbeat the government officers and employees while facing imminent defeat in the elections after seeing the trend in the first phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh.”
“Chief minister Kamal Nath’s letter during polling is unprecedented in country’s electoral history. It’s nothing but a direct threat to the government officers and employees engaged in poll duty in a bid to exert pressure on them,” said Vijesh Lunawat vice-president of the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh unit.
Lunawat said the CM’s act was direct interference in the functioning of the Election Commission as ‘government employees’ work under the EC, not the state or central government, during elections.
Lunawat said, “The party is preparing its draft to lodge a complaint in this regard and demand action against the CM.”
Rajya Karmchari Sangh president Jitendra Singh said, “The letter is unwarranted. Government and employees are already discharging their duties with impartiality. If anyone doesn’t do his duty well the ECI will take notice of the same.”
State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi defended the letter by saying that “every political party keeps a watch on officers and employees who are not doing their jobs with impartiality. Our state Congress president has just asked the party to keep watch on such officers and employees. There is nothing unusual in it. An officer or employee doesn’t belong to any party.”
